The Globe and Mail crosswords: Breaking down the Weekender’s ‘Jury’s Still Out’ crossword, cryptic clues and more | Canada Voices

Welcome back to Puzzle Pieces, our weekly column about the latest Weekender crossword (along with a note from the constructor) and Fraser Simpson’s Weekender Cryptic. As always, I’ll style grid entries in CAPITAL LETTERS and clues in [square brackets], and there will be spoilers!

Today’s Weekender is by Toronto constructor Carina da Rosa, who’s one of our most frequent crossword contributors. We’re lucky to have her: Carina was named top Emerging Constructor at the 2026 ORCAs, the annual crossword industry awards. (Yes, that’s a thing! And yes, its name is an anagram for another, obviously lesser, annual award.)

Favourite moments in today’s crossword

Today’s puzzle, Jury’s Still Out‚ has some nice examples of how a clue’s phrasing hints at the answer’s format.

• The clue at 77A, [Heeded], is in the past tense. That signals an answer that’s in the past tense, too: OBEYED. This can take some getting used to when you’re new, but with experience it becomes second nature.
• The clue at 84D is [Market to trade AUD for CAD]. Because it uses currency abbreviations, we can expect the answer to be an abbreviation, too. So, rather than the full “foreign exchange,” the answer is FOREX. (This one was new to me. Learning every day.)
• At 41A, the clue [Corp. switcheroos] has an abbreviation and is plural, so it’s no surprise that the answer is a plural abbreviation: REORGS. (“Switcheroos” is the kind of playful language you can often expect from Carina. I enjoyed “partay” in 27A, too.)

Carina also filled the puzzle with Canadian references, such as Neil Peart’s YYZ drum SOLO at 35A, Samantha BEE at 44A, CLARA Hughes at 39D, and the Blue Jays’ HOMERS at 81D.

Breaking down today’s theme

This theme is quintessential Carina, who, as she says in her note below, loves all things silly. It also contains an important element of many crossword themes: the “revealer” entry. The crosswords we ran last week and the week before didn’t use or need one, but today we have a prime example of how a revealer can explain the puzzle’s theme.

Because we don’t want to reveal the theme too early, the revealer is typically placed toward the bottom of the grid, usually as the last longest Across entry (or sometimes across the centre of the grid). You know it’s the revealer because its clue will generally include something along the lines of “… or a hint to this puzzle’s theme.”

Today’s revealer comes at 98A, with the clue [Time will tell … or a hint to interpreting the answers to the starred clues]. The answer is IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN.

How is that a hint? If we look at the goofy theme entries, which are all identified by asterisks in their clues, we see that each one is a familiar phrase where “it” has been removed – i.e., “it” remains to be seen. There are five, but let’s look at three:

• 22A: [*Shakespearean stage direction for an old flame running from danger in the woods?] is EX PURSUED BY A BEAR, a riff on the famous exit stage direction in the Bard’s The Winter’s Tale.
• 39A: [*Veggie trays arranged in obscene positions?] is CRUDE PLATTERS, removing it from crudité. I’m picturing a posh garden party thrown into chaos, thanks to a mischievous, giggling caterer.
• 80A: [*Article 2.2 of the Thanksgiving code: Turkey topping shall be (a) free of lumps; (b) made to Grandma’s specifications] is, of course, THE LAW OF GRAVY, by which we all must abide.

A note from today’s constructor, Carina da Rosa

If I have the choice between serious and silly, I’ll usually choose the latter (I’m deadly serious about silliness). Hence, naughty platters and an old beau being chased by an animal.

My first Weekender was an “addition” theme, the second featured anagrams, and here’s a “deletion” theme for my hat trick. If my next one is even half as funny as some of the clues Aaron M. Rosenberg comes up with [see our Feb. 14 or April 25 Weekenders for examples], I’ll be happy.

Some theme entries that didn’t make the cut: FISHING PERM, EMERGENCY EX, and REMEMBER THE TANS. A surprising number of my favourite things made it into this puzzle, too (The White Lotus, any TV show on the ’90s TGIF lineup, Frankenstein, ABBA …). Big thanks to Jess for shaping this thing with me. Also, thanks to her for fitting in a Swiss Chalet clue. Someone pass the rolls.

Cryptic clue of the week

Building on the container clue we looked at last week, let’s try a slightly trickier one from 11A in Fraser Simpson’s latest cryptic: [Oz visitor carries on after centre of Emerald City (7)]. See Fraser’s primer for a refresher on cryptic solving.

My first thought is that “Oz visitor” is the definition. Dorothy is seven letters, but the rest of the clue doesn’t seem to point to the letters in her name … so I keep looking.

“Oz visitor carries on” could mean “Oz visitor has ON inside of it.” To try that route, I know I want a pretty short word to put ON into, so how about TOTO? If I put ON inside TOTO I get … TOONTO? TONOTO? TOTONO? One of those looks suspiciously like the name of a certain city, so now I’m pretty sure that the “City” at the other end of the clue is the definition.

What’s left is “after centre of Emerald.” The central letter of Emerald is R, so the whole clue adds up to “TOTO has ON inside of it, after an R,” or TO(R+ON)TO. A city.